A member of the US Secret Service stands guard in front of White House October 23, 2014 in Washington, DC. Last evening Dominic Adesanya, 23, of Bel Air, Maryland jumped over the two layers of security fence and onto the north lawn of the White House before he was subdued as he fought two police dogs. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
After yet another person jumped the fence protecting the White House. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is once again calling for a “common-sense solution”: Can’t we just make it taller?
An unarmed man breached the fence last night and was taken down by two dogs before reaching the building. Another man, armed with a knife, breached the fence in September and was able to reach the East Room of the White House, leading the Secret Service to consider additional security measure near the First Family’s home. This could potentially include checkpoints to enter the pedestrian area in front of the White House.
“The Secret Service has learned from the most serious breach in its history that dogs need to be on the job on the ground where the fence-jumpers want to be, not at an off-site location,” Norton, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement. “However, last night’s jumper scaled the fence when the President was in the residence. When will the Department of Homeland Security or the Secret Service seek a historically authentic, secure wrought-iron fence to thwart fence jumpers? The potential effectiveness of such measures is clear, unlike the overreach of keeping the public farther away from the White House. These two steps – updating the fence and keeping dogs close to the fence – show that what we need is common sense and attentiveness to every security detail at the perimeter.”
After a man jumped the fence in September, the Secret Service added an additional barrier in front of the fence with signs that read “Do not enter.” A spokesperson for the Secret Service told DCist today “no changes” have been made to security barriers near the White House “at this time” and declined to “speculate” on whether changes would be made in the future.
